“A good writer is the best thief”

Christian daily Trouw (translates to ‘loyal’) has an interview with Flemish writer Tom Lanoye where they have him respond to the ten commandments. About “thou shalt not steal” he says:

In my profession theft is a tribute. A good writer is the best thief. A bad writer steals from the wrong people, or not at all. A bad writer thinks he knows it all already. You have to keep rolling around in all sorts of literary beds. Carnivorous, omnivorous, vegetarian, anything! Everything can be an inspiration.

(Link: interview in Dutch. Via Eamelje, Dutch. Photo by Frank C. Müller, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 Germany.)

This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2007 at 12:33 am and is filed under General, Literature, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Tags: copyright, flemish, inspiration, plagiarism, Tom Lanoye, writing